On Jun 30, 10:17*am, Scott wrote:
On Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:00:30 -0700 (PDT), CJB
wrote:





At the weekend we decided to visit London Zoo (branded ZSL) on a First
Great Western 2for1 deal. (South West Trains offer the same). The
leaflets for these deals are available at numerous stations within the
Greater London boundary, and also presumably beyond. They are
extensive and cover 100s of 'attractions' in London. However - as we
found to our cost - the conditions in the small print on the back (so
small that you can hardly read *them) state that the offers are only
available for 'paper' tickets to London (obviously from further
afield), also they are NOT available for Oyster Tickets. And no
mention is made of Travel Cards or Freedom Passes.

So when we got to ZSL our 2for1 coupons was declined and we got
clobbered for the full adult price of £17 each. Actually we elected
not to pay the 'voluntary' donation to help to preserve tigers (or
something like that) so it was slightly less.

But it is now obvious to us that the 2for1 deals - widely advertised
throughout London - actually EXCLUDES most Londoners especially those
who have to use Oyster Cards, Travel Cards or Freedom Passes.
Apparently even local London paper tickets are excluded because these
have to be from outside London into London - although the conditions
do not state how far outside London you need to be, nor do they define
what a ticket into London exactly means.

C.J.Brady

When you say you visited 'on a First Great Western 2 for 1 deal' did
you travel on First Great Western? *If so, presumably you had a
ticket. *Was this not the ticket they wanted to see rather than an
Oyster card?

I can see their logic with an Oyster card. *Unless they have a card
reader in the zoo they would have no way of knowing whether you had
used it to make a journey that day or not. *I think the basis of the
offer is to 'reward' those usiing the train not those who happen to
have an Oyster card in their wallet.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

My friend had a paper ticket from Newbury to Hayes & Harlington,
extended by a 1-day all zone Travel Card. I had a London Freedom
Pass.

ZSL stated that they needed TWO *paper* tickets from 'outside' London
to London - although they couldn't define the term 'outside' nor the
exact destination London station required. Actually ZSL hadn't a clue
what was valid or not, all the women at the ticket desk knew was that
Oyster Cards and Freedom Passes were not valid. So we both had to pay
the full admission. CJB.